The Greatest Illusion of All
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: The greatest trick of all was pretending he didn't love her. Het. Unconventional Pairing.


Title: "The Greatest Illusion of All"  
Author: Pirate Turner  
Rating: PG  
Summary: The greatest trick of all was pretending he didn't love her.  
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, names, codenames, places, items, fandoms, titles, and etc. are always © & TM their respective owners, not the author, and are used without permission. Any and all original characters and everything else is © & TM the author and may not be reproduced in any way without the author's express, written permission. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.  
Author's Note: 244. That's the number of stories that were sitting on my hard drive collecting dust because I lack the energy and time to take care of them as I once did. My betaing pattern has always been to write, then type up if written on paper, the story, read it aloud to my beloved Jack and our children, editing as I go, and then finally format and post. Sadly, this part is simply taking too much of my time and energy, and my beloved Jack and I have too little time together in person these days to be able to keep up with my stories. So what to do? Give up writing? I actually considered it for a while, tried to make excuses to myself other than the large number of stories collecting cyber dust on my computer, as to why I lacked the energy and Muse to write new tales. And then, with the turn of the new year, I decided to stop running and face the problem. The problem is, quite frankly, that once one gets so bogged down in formatting and editing that writing is no longer a pleasure but the actual posting of those writings becomes a hassle and - egad! - work, it's time to cut something out, and that will never be the writing process. So, in short, yes, there will be mistakes in this tale. Yes, it's missing about half of the header information I usually include. But I wrote it for pleasure and am posting it in hopes of sharing that pleasure with others. Do with it as you will.

He was the Master of illusion. It was a title he had spent most of his considerably long life fighting to achieve. He had battled many Wizards, Sorcerers, and Demons to make the title his and had almost lost his life numerous times along the way. There had been a few times when he had almost quit, too many lives lost along the way, friendships ruined, and beliefs shattered that had made him wonder about his path and doubt his place in life, but Mandrake had never given up his quest for long. He was now the Supreme Magician and had been for years.

Yet, now, more than ever before, and with no doubt but complete certainty, Mandrake wished he could give it all up. He'd gladly lay down his wand and never fight or practice magic again if only he could stop the biggest charade of all. He'd never thought this would happen. He surely hadn't asked for it to happen. But it had. He'd tried every trick in every book he'd ever written or read, every technique he'd ever heard, to stop this impossibility from becoming reality.

For a magician of his power and prowess, nothing was supposed to be impossible. He could bend every force in the cosmos to his will. He could control plant, animal, and even human, if he chose, life. He could bend metal with his mind, start raging fires, and stop wars, all without ever touching anything. He had conjured, during his lifetime thus far, everything from Faeries and dragons to Demons. And yet, against this force, this unthinkable impossibility that was far too real, he was powerless.

He could stop the Earth from spinning, but he couldn't stop his heart from beating with this love that he had no right to feel. Mandrake had once wanted to be in love. He had thought he'd known it a few times and had suffered great heartache when he'd lost those he'd thought he'd loved. In suffering, he'd asked never to love again, and for a long time, no one had caught that special part of his eye.

But he had grown lonely, and in that loneliness, Mandrake had made the mistake that had marked his life forever. He had asked for some one to love who would be strong enough, in both physicality and spirituality, to stand beside him always. It would have been nice to have such a woman.

It wouldn't have mattered what she would have looked like. Any woman who could stand beside him as he battled Demons from Hell and outer space would have to be beautiful in her soul, the most important loveliness of all. The woman with whom he'd fallen in love was a ravishing beauty, both inside and outside, but she was still the wrong woman. He couldn't love her, and yet, he did.

He shouldn't even look at her with an appraising eye. She was far too young for him, and to complicate matters even more, she was the daughter of his best friend, his best and oldest friend who would never understand the way Mandrake lusted after his daughter and would surely do his best to tear his heart from his still breathing chest if he ever suspected the way Mandrake looked at Jedda.

Jedda herself would be pissed, and she'd have every right to be. After all, he was acting like a silly, old sod aching to romance a girl who wasn't even half his age! He had held her in his arms when she'd been a child, playing games with her and reading stories to her. He'd easily gotten lost in her big and trusting eyes even back then but in an entirely different manner, in the manner in which he should - an adult captivated, by a child's sweetness and innocence wanting to make the world a wonderful place for her, - not like the perve he'd become as he'd watched Jedda blossom over the years. He was ashamed of himself but still unable to stop the reaction her mere presence brought on every fiber of his being.

He quivered when she was around. His breath hitched whenever she looked at him. His mind always wondered fearfully if she could somehow read the thoughts running rampant through it whenever she was near. He feared himself to be an open book, there for her to read and throw away, as his mustache shook upon his face and she gazed at him with eyes that were still as wide, innocent, and beautiful as they had been on that first day he'd looked into his goddaughter's eyes when his trusting friend had laid his cherished bundle into Mandrake's arms.

He still remembered how he'd felt so lucky and blessed for Phantom to trust him so on that joyous day. A prideful warmth had filled him, and he'd been almost as happy as the doting father himself. He had been a doting uncle, always giving Jedda anything she wanted if her father didn't beat him to the punch or flat out deny her having whatever possession it was she wanted at the time, but that was all Mandrake could be.

He couldn't ever be her friend, because he couldn't stop his soul from yearning and heart from burning for her. He was no longer a friend to her father, either; his feelings for her, feelings he knew betrayed the trust Phantom had placed in him all those years ago when he'd named him her godfather, forbade him from being so. But he could be her uncle. He could still give her everything she wanted, protect her from all harm, and continue to watch over her as she kept growing to womanhood. He could train her in the magic, if that's what she wanted. He could save her life, and even more importantly, save her from him.

She didn't have to know that his heart beat so loudly, swiftly, and powerfully whenever she touched him that it felt as though it would explode. She didn't have to know that he dreamed of her every night and fantasized about her every day. She didn't' have to know that her father's oldest friend was secretly betraying the Walker family every time he looked at her, because he was a weakling who couldn't fight love. She didn't have to know that a flash of her bright smile transformed the world's greatest magician into a melting, bubbling, trembling, and pathetic pile of goo inside a body that still looked as strong as it ever had and was capable of loving her more and better than any one else ever could. She didn't have to know that he'd love her until the day he died, and that, Mandrake knew, was truly the world's greatest illusion.

**The End**


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